a film by Reha Erdem
Set in a remote village in a beautiful mountainous region of north-eastern Turkey, the story follows the lives of three friends on the verge of adolescence. Struggling variously with deeply felt familial rage and responsibilities, burgeoning sexuality and guilt-ridden desire, the children find themselves detached from the customs and traditions of their community and consumed by the ennui of daily village life.
Within their small, poor mountain village overlooking the sea, the people endure the harshness of nature on a day-to-day survival basis. They diligently earn their living out of the earth and from the few animals they keep. Just like the animals and trees around them, they have the knowledge of a temporary existence, and are resigned to their fate. Their lives, like those of their ancestors, follow the rhythms of the earth, air and water, of day and night and the seasons, with days divided into five parts by the call to prayer. Every day, human existence is experienced through these five time periods.
Rigidly adhering to time-honoured methods, children are raised by a practice their parents have experienced from their own upbringing. They express their love awkwardly and consider beating to be a favourable method of showing love and dispensing guidance. Childhood is difficult and a father typically has a preference for one son over the other, whilst mothers command their daughters ruthlessly. The children study in the village school consisting of only one classroom, and families express their gratitude to the teacher by giving her gifts – the bread they bake themselves, the milk of their own sheep.
Ömer, Yakup and Yıldız are three children of 12 or 13 years of age, just between childhood and adolescence. As membership of the adult world becomes imminent, an awful truth dawns for them about their status. All three earn the displeasure and disappointment of their elders and in turn become disillusioned and resentful.
Ömer is the son of the imam, who ceaselessly humiliates him by praising his younger brother and making no secret that he loves him more. Ömer conceives a passionate hatred of his father and wishes for his death. But when his wish is not granted he begins to look for ways to kill his father as a twelve-year-old boy might, sharing his guilty thoughts with his friend Yakup. Yakup is a sensitive boy who nurtures a hopeless crush on the young schoolteacher but he hides his guilty feelings even from his best friend Ömer. When one day he sees his father spying on the teacher, he dreams, like Ömer, of killing his father. Yıldız is a bright, studious girl who also does her best to manage the household responsibilities imposed on her by her mother. She attempts to be a mother for her baby brother but learns with trepidation about the secrets of the relationship between men and women, and what the general duties of womanhood are going to be.
The sensitivity of the children's reflections of their parents' maladaptive behaviour creates a bond that sustains their daily trials. Five times elapse – as the three children grow up they oscillate between rage and guilt, love and enmity.
Beş Vakit (Five Times) is a hypnotic and beautifully observed portrait of a rural society, disaffected youth and the loss of innocence. A contemplative coming-of-age story with an enigmatic, dream-like quality, poignantly reflecting on the way life's mistakes are forever repeated through the generations. Florent Herry's cinematography is exquisite and the director's use of the haunting music of Arvo Pärt perfectly expresses the underlying emotional theme of the film.
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